About Me

A sailor in this rough sea called life, who is rowing with all the strength given to him by the lighthouse called GOD. He is one of GOD's blessed child and he does not deserve to be this happy in life. His way of thanking GOD is to make others happy and if he can bring a smile on his reader's face, he treats that as victory.

Jan 17, 2011

I am sure 95% of the folks who read this post would be from the software industry, an industry which does not expose its employees to interact directly with any government organization or sector as there is no need for that, even on the personal front, most of the folks in IT do not get frequent situations to interact with a government body, so I can safely stamp the community of software engineers as "Government Ignorant Crowd". We are a bunch of "easy-goers", we lack the power of "questioning", if you touch your heart and say, we IT folks hardly "bargain", unlike our dad and granddads did. Ok why am I saying all these ? Because ...

I am the treasurer for my apartment which has 200 odd houses, so I have to deal with a lot of public money (in lakhs) every month, I am accountable and answerable to that public fund and hence I have to be super dooper cautious before spending every rupee, though we are a group of 9 members and always take collective decision, but we always have to be careful before we approve any expenditure. The incident that happened this Saturday slapped me hard on my face and gave a vivid picture of the true INDIA which most of the IT folks would have just heard, but not faced. We have created a poisonous seed and sowed it across the nation, that seed has now developed deep roots and it is famously called as "Bribe"

Our apartment has got a problem with respect to the electricity that we are consuming, initially when the builder built this apartment and got an EB connection, he purchased a 50 KW unit, which is not as per the norms by giving BRIBE to some a** h*** inside EB, actually we should have been allotted 100 KW unit which is the prescribed consumption for any apartment which has more than 200 flats and a STP and a LIFT and some other common area requirements. Why the builder did not go in for a 100KW initially is due to the cost he has to pay to the government which was huge and today our association is being threatened by the electricity department that they will disconnect the power if we do not upgrade.

The government rate to purchase additional kilo watt of power is Rs 26/KW, that's all, but for you to get that unit allocated, you have to pay a BRIBE of Rs 2 Lakhs, yes, you heard it right, 2 Lakhs. Our association has got all the necessary documents and proofs to apply for a 100 KW power unit, still our papers will not me moved, until we pay the BRIBE. I always say this, BRIBE in this country is initiated only by a CITIZEN and not by the government official, if you are ready to give, I am ready to get, and that’s the rule. What slapped me hard is, why are we educated people so spineless in questioning that corrupt official ? In our association meeting the rest of the members were discussing of negotiating with that officer and "request" him to reduce his BRIBE amount, what the FUCK ? Why I should pay BRIBE ?

My apartment manager made this statement "Sir, that AE - Nataraja Reddy is a very strict person sir", I was happy to hear that, but my happiness was short lived, my manager continued "He is very strict, that he will not do anything without getting BRIBE", isn't it a new definition of being 'strict' ? In our country, if you touch any government sector, you cannot do anything without giving BRIBE, yes that is the sickening fate of our country today, right from birth certificate to death certificate, you need to BRIBE, if you don't, you will be considered as a ZOMBIE. Another interesting piece of information I gathered is, in Karnataka state you cannot file a RTI petition, if you do so, either you will be threatened or the end report you will get will be fudged, this state tops the list of corruption in the entire nation.

We are creating a nation which is not going to be livable for our next generation, and that is not a good sign, unless we start to question those corrupt officials, we are not going to curb this menace, I am now scared to go to any government sector today, I don't want to give bribe and at least for that I wish I don't step into any of their departments, but the hart truth is, you cannot escape a corrupt government, if tomorrow I have to get a birth certificate for my child, I have to give bribe, tomorrow if I die, my kin has to give bribe to get my death certificate, in INDIA, if you don't BRIBE, you are neither born, nor dead, funny isn't it ? I have decided not to give any BRIBE to these EB folks, and still get our apartments electricity to be increased to 100KW consumption, please wish me good luck folks.

6
SAID FROM THE HEART:

humm.. i have a whole different set of view on this, what u said was wayyyyyyyyyy too simplistic. as in a page of html cannot be sufficient to justify or eradicate a malaise which is close to 60 +years old now. it needs a more deep seated and ground breaking approach. being reared in the house of an economist, i see the whole problem from the angle of pure and plain economics, no morals, no high sounding philo mumbo jumbo. some things are purely and plainly economics. if we see this too from that angle, it makes it lot more easier. i think i cud write a post of my own :) buy i somehow refrain from it, cos, hmmm... there are brighter people who have said awesome things, but till things start tilting from top up nothing can happen.and huh 'Government Ignorant Crowd' sounded a bit too condescending. well there are many who are not so, not everyone was born with an 'IT' spoon :Ddont mind my words, but u sounded way too angered by something very deepseated. i was in turn a bit angered by the words. give it a deeper thought and check for workable solutions. And since your blog has such wonderful reach, it could inspire many others.Again, no offence

An update. Myself and my fellow association member Ashish went and met the GM of BESCOM and today they have agreed to do the upgrade of our apartment's power line at the cost of what the government has set for that operation. THERE IS NO BRIBE AT ALL HERE... so without trying, never succumb to BRIBES ...